LAW 604C Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Childrens Hospital, The Takeaway
Document Summary
Readings for dates when justices are here will be. On final: duties of medical and other professionals, traditional duties of health care providers in traditional practice. Malpractice suits are negligence cases with special rules. The special rules are derived from the doctor-patient relationship. When a doctor accepts a patient, the doctor undertakes caring for the patient. During the course of the surgery, a nerve near the thyroid is cut, paralyzing plaintiff"s (cid:448)o(cid:272)al (cid:272)ords. Plaintiff sues defendant for negligence in the surgery to remove her thyroid. Appeals court affirms that a standard of care for which the defendant to be judged upon was not established. A standard of care owed plaintiff must be established for defendant to (cid:271)e judged upo(cid:374) e(cid:454)(cid:272)ept i(cid:374) (cid:272)ases where a ph(cid:455)si(cid:272)ia(cid:374)"s (cid:272)o(cid:374)du(cid:272)t is so grossly negligent or the treatment so common that a layman could reasonably appraise it. Plaintiff had the burden of establishing a standard of care and failed to do so.
